Conventionally, there has been known a cloud technique in which a plurality of users share resources on a network using a virtualization technique of operating a plurality of virtual information processing devices. In a network system to which such a technique is applied, a virtual machine (VM) in which an information processing device is virtualized and a disk image that is a storage area used by the virtual machine are separately operated.
For example, in an example illustrated in FIG. 12, a physical machine 1 that operates a virtual machine VM1 and a physical machine 2 that operates virtual machines VM2 and VM3 are connected with a storage system 1 and a storage system 2 via a network. The storage system 1 manages a VM image 1 that is a disk image of the virtual machine VM1 and a VM image 2 that is a disk image of the virtual machine VM2. The storage system 2 manages a VM image 3 that is a disk image of the virtual machine VM3. FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining an operation of a cloud network.
In this example, each of the virtual machines VM1 to VM3 accesses the VM image of the device itself managed by the storage system 1 or 2 via the network and uses the accessed VM image as a storage device of the device itself. For example, the virtual machine VM3 uses the VM image 3 managed by the storage system 2 as a storage device of the device itself using a technique such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) (a registered trademark).
Meanwhile, there has been known a technique of a server that transmits data such as update data or new software to an information processing device connected to a network. For example, in an example illustrated in FIG. 13, a plurality of information processing devices 1 to 3 is connected with a server that transmits update data to the information processing devices 1 to 3 via a network. FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining transmission of update data in a conventional network.
In this example, when the transmission of update data is requested from the information processing device 1, the server transmits update data to the information processing device 1 via the network. Thereafter, when the update data is received, the information processing device 1 stores the received update data in a storage device of the device itself.
If the technique of the server that transmits data to the information processing devices is applied to the network to which the cloud technique is applied, the server transmits data to the virtual machine that has made a request for data transmission via the network. Thereafter, the virtual machine transmits data received from the server to the disk image of the device itself via the network and stores the data in the disk image of the device itself.
For example, FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining a process of transmitting update data in a cloud network. In an example illustrated in FIG. 14, when the transmission of update data is requested from the virtual machine VM2, the server transmits the requested update data to the virtual machine VM2 via the network. Thereafter, the virtual machine VM2 transmits the received update data to the virtual image 2 managed by the storage system 1 via the network and stores the update data in the VM image 2.
However, in the above-described technique of transmitting data to each virtual machine, since data is transmitted to the virtual machine that has made a request for data transmission and the virtual machine transmits data to the disk image of the device itself, there has been a problem in that a load on a network increases.
That is, in the above-described technique of transmitting data to each virtual machine, data transmitted from the server is transmitted to the storage system that manages the disk image via the physical machine that operates the virtual machine. For this reason, data is transmitted twice, and thus a load on a network increases.
Patent Document: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-332223.